Contested commodities at both ends of life: buying and selling gametes, embryos, and body tissues.

This essay examines the increasing commodification of the body with respect to tissues, games, and embryos. Such commodifcation contributes to a diminishing sense of human personhood on an individual level, even as it erodes commitments to human flourishing at the societal level. After the case for social harm resulting from the increasing commodification of the body is made, the question becomes whether that harm is best remedied by following any of three approaches by which government traditionally seeks to promote the flourishing of its citizens. The author concludes that it is not, and that what is needed is a pragmatic and somewhat casuistic approach to the regulation of contested commodities--that which legal scholar Margaret Jane Radin calls "incomplete commodification."     

Turnover and organizational performance: a comparative analysis of the effects of voluntary, involuntary, and reduction-in-force turnover.

Data were collected from 31 regional subunits of a national financial services company to examine differential effects of 3 types of turnover (voluntary, involuntary, and reduction-in-force) on measures of organizational subunit performance. Although each form of turnover exhibited adverse effects on subunit performance when examined separately, partial correlation results revealed greater and more pervasive adverse effects for reduction-in-force turnover (i.e., downsizing) in comparison with the effects of voluntary and involuntary turnover. The results confirm the negative effects of downsizing, suggesting the need to move beyond the traditional voluntary-involuntary classification scheme used in turnover research.     

Responsible engineering: the importance of character and imagination

Engineering Ethics literature tends to emphasize wrongdoing, its avoidance, or its prevention. It also tends to focus on identifiable events, especially those that involve unfortunate, sometimes disastrous consequences. This paper shifts attention to the positive in engineering practice; and, as a result, the need for addressing questions of character and imagination becomes apparent.     

The ‘redefinition of death’ debate: Western concepts and western bioethics

Biomedicine is a global enterprise constructed upon the belief in the universality of scientific truths. However, despite huge scientific advances over recent decades it has not been able to formulate a specific and universal definition of death: In fact, in its attempt to redefine death, the concept of death appears to have become immersed in ever increasing vagueness and ambiguity. Even more worrisome is that bioethics, in the form of principlism, is also endeavouring to become a global enterprise by claiming neutrality. It appears that the discourse within both disciplines have similarly manipulated the boundaries of death to include the “dying”. This paper argues that the redefinition of death debate in biomedicine reveals a concept of personhood which is profoundly western in origin and which is in accordance to the concept adhered to within principlism. Biomedicine and bioethics do not appear to acknowledge the limitations of their own world view and hence lack an understanding of their applicability and appropriateness in diverse social and cultural contexts; a situation which adds credence to claims as to the hegemonic and imperialistic nature of all such global enterprises. Ms. Jones is an intensive care clinical nursing specialist. Dr. Kessel is a public health physician and medical ethicist.     

Absolute Versus Tentative Interpretations: Mediating Effects of Client Locus of Control

An analog design was used to investigate the mediating effects of client locus of control (i.e., an internal focus or external focus) on perceptions of counselor style of interpreting events (i.e., absolute or tentative interpretations) on measures of perceived session depth and smoothness, and perceived counselor expertness, attractiveness, and trustworthiness. One hundred and thirty-four undergraduate college students, crossed on level of locus of control, were randomly assigned to one of two treatment conditions, and then completed measures of perceived session depth and smoothness, as well as perceived counselor expertness, attractiveness, and trustworthiness. Results indicated a significant interaction effect on perceived counselor trustworthiness. Implications for college counselors are provided.     

Discrimination Reversal Conditioning of an Eyeblink Response is Impaired by NMDA Receptor Blockade

In the present study we examined the effects of the specific NMDA receptor antagonist CPP on discrimination reversal learning in rabbits. We report two primary findings. First, the institution of NMDA receptor blockade had no effect on a learned discrimination. Second, after stimulus reversal, CPP treatment impaired acquisition of the discrimination reversal. This impairment manifested itself early in training as a retardation in acquisition of a CR to the new CS+ and late in training as an inability to suppress responsiveness to the new CS-. Given the comparability of the present results with previously published results for phenytoin-treated rabbits, we suggest that the effects of phenytoin on learning in this paradigm is at least in part mediated by its effects on NMDA receptors. We further suggest that these findings emphasize the need to better define the role of NMDA receptor activation and hippocampally-mediated circuits in a variety of associative learning paradigms.     

Cognitive–Behavioral-Interpersonal Scenarios: Interformulator Reliability and Convergent Validity

Although a clinical case formulation can help focus treatment, little is known about the reliability and convergent validity of independently generated, cognitive–behavioral or cognitive–interpersonal formulations. Using videotapes of a semi-structured interview, pairs of clinicians independently formulated 2–3 cognitive–behavioral–interpersonal scenarios (CBISs) on each of 4 women with mood or comorbid mood and anxiety disorders. Ten licensed psychologists then rated each CBIS on 15 dimensions involving cognition, affect, symptoms, and interpersonal functioning. Reliability of the mean ratings (aggregated over the 10 raters) was >.83 for all dimensions. The set of CBISs formulated by a clinician for a patient generally demonstrated good convergent (same patient/different formulator) and discriminant (different patient/same or different formulator) validity on three factor-analytically derived general dimensions of depression, anxiety, and interpersonal functioning. Within each of three patients, pairs of formulators generally agreed on the situational components of the CBISs and demonstrated adequate to very good convergent validity of corresponding CBIS content. These results contribute to accumulating evidence for the reliability and validity of clinical scenarios as an idiographic, situation-level case formulation. Such formulations can help identify multiple cognitive, behavioral, or interpersonal intervention points in the causal chain leading to distress or dysfunction.     

Breaks and Links. Prospects for Russian Religious Philosophy Today

An analytical review of the current situation of Christian philosophyin Russia is presented, aiming to explain, why so much expectedrenaissance of this philosophy in the post-soviet period did nottake place. Russian philosophy is shown to be structurally a synthesis of the Western conceptual framework and Eastern Christian discourse,the latter being, in turn, the synthesis of patristic and asceticdiscourse, including two basic paradigms, deification (theosis)and sacralisation, and having energy as its dominant category.The key role of ascetic experience in Eastern Christian discourseis stressed. Topical problems related to the study of thisexperience, as well as concepts of energy and theosis, are discussed.     

Representational momentum and Michotte's (1946/1963) "launching effect" paradigm

In A. Michotte's (1946/1963) launching effect, a moving launcher contacts a stationary target, and then the launcher becomes stationary and the target begins to move. In this experiment, observers viewed modifications of a launching effect display, and displacement in memory for the location of targets was measured. Forward displacement of targets in launching effect displays was decreased relative to that of targets (a) that were presented in isolation and either moved at a constant fast or slow velocity or decelerated or (b) that moved in a direction orthogonal to previous motion of the launcher. Possible explanations involving a deceleration of motion or landmark attraction effects were ruled out. Displacement patterns were consistent with naive impetus theory and the hypothesis that observers believed impetus from the launcher was imparted to the target and then dissipated.     

An openness scale for the California Psychological Inventory

We developed a 36-item scale to measure Openness, using items on the California Psychological Inventory (CPI; Gough, 1957, 1987, 1996), Form 434. Items were initially chosen on the basis of content validity. Five samples (N = 2,375) were used to establish reliability, validity, and norms; 4 samples consisted of university undergraduate students, and 1 comprised applicants for nonmanagement call centerjobs. Internal consistency estimates obtained in each sample averaged approximately .75, and test-retest stability, assessed in 1 sample, was estimated at .84. Cross-correlations with related scales, for example, the NEO Personality Inventory-Revised Openness scale (Costa & McCrae, 1992) and other CPI-based scales, provided evidence of construct validity. Statistically significant predictive validities were obtained in 2 call centerjob-incumbent samples, with range-corrected true validities of .20 to .36 for a number of job performance criteria. Construct and predictive validity were found to be higher than for other scales consisting of CPI items designed to measure Openness or a related construct. Finally, norms were prepared for university undergraduate students (n = 1,847) and nonmanagement service-sector job applicants (n = 528).